1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to furniture drawer slide assemblies and, more specifically, to an improved drawer glide that can be used with a variety of lengths of drawer slides, thereby reducing the number of different lengths of drawer slides required for use with drawers of various lengths.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to improve the ease of sliding of wood drawers, many furniture manufacturers have adopted the use of metal drawer slide assemblies, which utilize an elongated stationary lower metal drawer guide secured to the inside structure of the furniture article, an elongated upper metal drawer slide secured to the bottom of a drawer at the front and rear ends of the drawer, and a plastic drawer glide mounted to the rear wall of a drawer to facilitate movement of the drawer along the lower metal drawer guide. In most conventional drawer slide assemblies, the lower metal drawer guide consists of a generally U-shaped (or T-shaped) metal rail in cross-section, having flanges projecting horizontally outwardly from the upper ends thereof. The upper metal drawer slide is generally C-shaped in cross-section and has an integral, upwardly-extending metal tab member at the rear end thereof that is secured to the rear wall of the drawer. A typical arrangement of such conventional drawer slide assemblies is shown in co-owned U.S. Pat. Nos. Re. 32,134 and 4,501,452.
A plastic stop member is also provided at or near the front end of the elongated metal drawer guide that serves to prevent the drawer from being prematurely or inadvertently pulled out of the associated furniture unit. The plastic drawer glide is provided with a pair of opposing ways or runners that provide plastic-to-metal, as opposed to metal-to-metal, bearing surface to facilitate movement of the drawer along the elongated drawer guide. The opposing ways receive and ride along the outwardly projecting horizontal flanges of the drawer guide. A gap in the drawer glide just above the opposing ways can desirably barely accommodate the horizontal projections of the plastic stop member with no interference, so that the drawer can be inserted in the furniture unit with the stop and the drawer glide already installed. This gap also allows the drawer to be removed from the furniture unit, but only upon the use of sufficient force to squeeze the horizontal projections of the stop member into the gap of the drawer glide. Thus, the stop provides a warning to a user that the drawer is about to be pulled out of the furniture unit, and application of additional force will cause the drawer glide to pass beyond the stop.
A major shortcoming of the conventional drawer slide assembly is the need to provide drawer length-specific sizes of drawer slides. One reason that drawer length-specific sizes of drawer slides are required is that the upwardly-extending tab member at the rear end of the drawer slide provides the primary means for securing the rear end of the drawer slide to the bottom of the drawer. As a result, the drawer slide could not have a length that would cause the tab member to extend past the rear wall of the drawer.
The drawer glide of many conventional drawer slide assemblies is a plastic part that utilizes an elongated integral plastic male extension that is received inside the rear end of the C-shaped drawer slide. The plastic extension of the drawer glide is inserted into the rear end of the C-shaped drawer slide until a front face of the drawer glide lies flush against the upwardly-extending tab member at the rear end of the drawer slide. Screws or other suitable fasteners are used to secure both the drawer glide and the upwardly-extending tab member to the rear wall of the drawer. While the plastic extension of the drawer glide may provide some incidental support to the drawer slide, the primary purpose of the plastic extension is to provide a plastic bearing surface to facilitate movement of the drawer along the drawer guide.
By only being able to match a specific length of drawer slide with a given drawer length, a large array of drawer slides having various lengths must be manufactured to meet the demands of the furniture industry. This increases the number of stock-keeping units ("SKU's") that must be provided by the supplier of drawer slide assemblies.
The upwardly-extending tab portion also requires additional working of the metal during manufacture of the drawer slide, which adds to production time and cost. Similarly, there are disadvantages of conventional metal drawer slides due to the cost of complicated tooling for stamping manufacturing processes, or alternatively, where the metal drawer slides are roll formed, not only is complicated tooling required, but also, production time is detrimentally slowed down. The present invention overcomes these shortcomings by eliminating the upwardly-extending tab portion of the metal drawer slide and changing the manner in which the drawer glide couples with the rear end of the drawer slide and the rear wall of the drawer.